1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, network technology has shown remarkable progress. Currently, many pieces of office equipment including fax machines, printers, copiers, and image scanners are connectable via a network. The protocol which is most commonly used for network communication between these apparatuses is the Internet Protocol (IP). At present, internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the most prevailing protocol, however, adoption of internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) is gradually growing due to an IP address shortage problem and because of security concerns.
Since IPv6 has a much larger address space than IPv4, a plurality of addresses can be allocated for one apparatus as needed for each service provided by the apparatus. In IPv4, one address is provided for one apparatus.
In recent years, rules about power consumption of electric appliances have become strict due to increased international attention to environmental issues. Nowadays, it is essential that electric appliances on the market have a power saving function. The power saving function suspends some of the functions or reduces the operation speed of the appliance when a user does not use the appliance to reduce power consumption, and returns the appliance to normal operation when the user operates the appliance again, or an external request is made.
The external request includes operation by the user and automatic timed operation (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-301841). Further, if an apparatus is connected to a network, a personal computer (PC) and another apparatus can check a state of the apparatus and send an operation request via the network.
Examples of the states that can be checked are as follows:    Presence confirmation in a network layer of the open systems interconnection (OSI) model by internet control message protocol (ICMP) which is sent and received using a ping command.    Inquiry about network service using service location protocol (SLP).    Inquiry about device setting by web services on devices (WSD)    Inquiry about database of apparatus information (management information base (MIB)) of a network apparatus using simple network management protocol (SNMP).
In order to return from a power saving state to a normal state when the apparatus receives such an inquiry of the state checking and the operation request, a reset signal can be issued to the apparatus when the apparatus receives specified network data (packet) which is registered in a network controller.
However, in a case where the apparatus, for example, a network printer, is regularly checked for its state by a PC, the apparatus returns from the power saving state to a normal operating state each time it is checked, and then returns to the power saving state again. This operation will be repeated.
In other words, even if an apparatus has a power saving function, if the apparatus is regularly accessed via a network, low power consumption cannot be realized.
Further, since only a small number of packet patterns can be set on a local area network controller (LANC), it will be difficult to respond to all inquiries and reduce power consumption at the same time if types of inquiry about the apparatus state increase.